Trump-backed Michigan secretary of state candidate spread false

Karamo rose to prominence in Michigan after the 2020 election when she alleged to have witnessed fraud as a poll challenger during the state’s count of absentee ballots. The month after the election, Karamo testified before a state Senate committee, signed onto the unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge to Biden’s win and appeared on Fox News conservative opinion shows to promote her allegations and falsely claim widespread fraud occurred in the state.

A CNN review of Karamo’s podcast and writings on her now defunct personal website, which have not been previously reported, offer a window into the worldview of the professor-turned-candidate seeking to be in charge of Michigan’s elections. She declared herself an “anti-vaxxer” in 2020 even before the Covid-19 vaccine became a political flashpoint. She opposed teaching evolution and called public schools “government indoctrination camps.” And she’s harshly attacked those who don’t share her views, from Democrats and Republicans alike to members of the LGBTQ community and even couples who cohabitate before marriage.

Last month, Karamo appeared with other Republican secretary of state candidates who have echoed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, including Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem and Nevada’s Jim Marchant, at an event in Las Vegas featuring prominent people associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. At the event, she acknowledged in a speech that a statewide race would force her to broaden her constituency — while at the same time criticizing Republicans who disagreed with her, saying she was “fighting my own people in the state.”

“One of the things that I try to be very cognizant of, you know, I’m running a statewide race,” Karamo said, according to video provided to CNN. “And I understand I have to win the hearts and minds of people who may not necessarily think like me.”

Karamo and her campaign did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails from CNN requesting an interview, or to a list of questions requesting comment about the positions she’s expressed.

From poll challenger to statewide candidate

Karamo, a single mother of two children from a Detroit suburb, isn’t a total stranger to politics. She became active in her county’s Republican Party several years ago as she voiced concerns with public school curriculum, and she ran unsuccessfully for a county commissioner seat in 2018.

Rocky Raczkowski, chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party, said Karamo volunteered as a party…